2010 Canadian Grand Prix - Happy Hamilton Takes Command In Canada

McLaren’s recent championship resurgence continued at tonight’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, with Lewis Hamilton leading home his British team-mate Jenson Button, to a McLaren 1-2 finish.  Repeating the trend from Turkey a fortnight ago, Hamilton held off a long-race challenge from Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and the two Red Bulls to secure back-to-back victories, and with it, the leadership in the world drivers’ championship.

Having started on pole for the third time in a row in Canada, Hamilton converted his advantage, into an unchallenged lead into the first corner.  He avoided the chaos further back, as Ferrari’s Felipe Massa got into a shoving match with Vitantonio Liuzzi, clashing with the Italian three times and wrecking both of their races.  Later on around the first lap, Nico Hulkenberg got the final chicane wrong, which meant Kamur Kobayashi was forced to take avoiding action, and as a result, the Japanese drivers slammed into the barriers.

Hamilton survived an early onslaught from Sebastian Vettel, largely as the Red Bull driver was on the more favourable harder of the two tyre compounds.  Hamilton pitted and so did Alonso, whose Ferrari pit crew did a brilliant job to turn the Spaniard around ahead of Hamilton.  Side-by-side, the former team-mates went down the pitlane exit together, but the Ferrari edged ahead.  Back came Hamilton, who took advantage of Alonso being blocked by erstwhile shock leader, Sebastian Buemi in a Toro Rosso.  He dived inside to get the lead back.  While the pits was still very congested, full of drivers complaining about their lack of grip from tyres, the Red Bulls strategy looked like it might pay off, especially with Mark Webber.

Webber, starting back in seventh, following a morning gearbox change, inherited the lead when Hamilton, Alonso, Button and Vettel all pitted for their second stops.  He was on a slightly different strategy to the other frontrunners, and extended a lead, which grew upto twelve seconds.  However, his tyres started to lose traction and grip, and the Australian was powerless to resist Hamilton hauling him back in and eventually, overtaking him into Turn 1 on Lap 49.  McLaren’s day got better, when Button moved into second place, benefiting from Alonso being baulked by the Hispania of Karun Chandok.  Although he reeled in Hamilton briefly, Lewis increased his pace, to make sure of his second Canadian Grand Prix triumph.

Alonso settled for 3^rd, satisfied with Ferrari’s progress over the weekend.  He had a better weekend than Massa, who had a messy affair.  On the backfoot, following his bashing session with Liuzzi, Felipe steadily moved his way upto 10^th, before being viciously chopped by his former team-mate and mentor, Michael Schumacher with five laps to go.  Another trip to the pits, for a new front wing, left the Brazilian stranded in 15^th place.  Schumacher had an appalling weekend, which included wheel-banging sessions with Robert Kubica and Liuzzi, and ended up out of the points in 11^th, mugged by the two Force India’s on the last lap.

Vettel survived fading tyres and a gearbox issue, to crawl across the line in 4^th, with Webber close behind, frustrated by his team’s strategy.  Nico Rosberg was heavily delayed by the Massa/Liuzzi crash at the start, but produced a quiet, though solid recovery drive to 6^th, whilst Kubica nursed his damaged Renault home to 7^th.  Buemi was an outstanding 8^th, having driven well all weekend, with the two Force India’s of Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil taking the final points scoring positions.  Hats off to Heikki Kovalainen too, whose Lotus managed to beat Vitaly Petrov’s Renault on merit to 16^th place.

This was a very successful return to North America for Formula One, and as ever, Canada put on a spectacular spectacle, despite no appearances from the traditional Safety Car on the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve.  Lewis Hamilton is now the fifth different leader of the championship and his McLaren team are now brimming with confidence, as they head back to Valencia for the European Grand Prix in a fortnight time.  The 2010 F1 season now looks set to be a straight five-horse race between Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.